A Sleepwalker
by forestwife
Summary: 10th Doctor. After his regeneration, Rose discovers something new about the new Doctor.


Disclaimer: I don't own doctor who

Author's Notes: ok, this story is set in the beginning of season 2 when Rose is still getting used to the new Doctor.

A Sleepwalker

He'd changed, that much was obvious. He wasn't the same man that she'd known before. The question had been; could she cope with the new Doctor?

At Christmas, after watching him defeat the Sycorax she had decided that she could, even though many things about him were very different from how he was before.

Rose discovered one of these new things about the Doctor fairly quickly.

It hadn't been long after New Year when, one night in the TARDIS, she woke up suddenly, not even knowing what it was that had awoken her. All became apparent however, when she looked into the corridor outside her room; and the Doctor was walking down it. That in itself was not that unusual, the Doctor didn't sleep that often. In fact, in his last incarnation, he didn't ever seem to. The strange thing was that the Doctor was only wearing a t-shirt and some boxers, something that he would sleep in, not wander around the corridors in. He also looked quite agitated and seemed to be mumbling to himself.

Rose walked a little faster trying to catch up with him, and called "Doctor!" He didn't respond. Once she was alongside him, she looked into his face and saw that he seemed to be staring vacantly as if not really seeing the corridor in front of him at all. She waved a hand in front of his face and called his name again. Again, he didn't respond.

Suddenly, she realised that he must be sleepwalking. She was about to shake him to wake him up, when she vaguely remembered her mum telling her that you should never wake someone up when they're sleepwalking. She couldn't remember why, but she supposed there must be a good reason.

So, she gently took the Doctor's arm and led him back down the dimly lit corridor to his room. On the way, he was desperately muttering about someone called Susan who he'd supposedly left behind long ago. Rose didn't know anything about this or who 'Susan' was, so she merely whispered to the Doctor that everything was ok and that she was there. Once they reached his room, she put him back to bed, and then sat on the bed next to him for a few minutes until he stopped twitching and muttering and calmed down. Then she stayed for a few moments more to make sure that he would stay in bed.

While she was sitting there, she observed that while he was peacefully asleep, the Doctor looked incredibly young, innocent and carefree. No one could possibly guess by looking at him that he was in fact a 900-year-old sole survivor of a horrific war that had wiped out an entire race.

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Over the next few weeks, Rose realised that her having to take the sleepwalking Doctor back to bed was going to be a regular occurrence. She didn't mind though. Fortunately, the Doctor didn't sleep every night, so it didn't happen every night. But the other reason why she didn't mind was that she learned far more about the Doctor when he was asleep than when he was awake. Every time she led him back to his room, he was always muttering about various people he'd travelled with, places he'd been to and sometimes about Gallifrey. He talked about the family he'd once had and how life had used to be.

Rose also liked just sitting on his bed and watching him sleep. Once he had calmed down he always looked so peaceful, which was a contrast to how he was when he was awake. She knew that he always acted happy and carefree, but his eyes never lied, they always showed just how tortured he really was.

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Time passed, and Rose continued to look after the Doctor in his sleepwalking episodes. But when morning came she would never mention them. She knew that the Doctor would only be embarrassed or feel guilty, like he was a burden on her or something. He would probably even try to stop sleeping so that he wouldn't disturb her. She knew that telling him would accomplish nothing but awkwardness.

Rose didn't feel that in any way was the Doctor a burden. On the contrary, she felt that it was the least she could do to take care of him when he needed her. He took care of her all the rest of the time.

At Christmas he had asked what sort of man he was. Rose decided that of all the things that he was, he was most definitely; a sleepwalker.

THE END

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A/N: Thank you to anyone who persevered with this story, I hope you enjoyed it (or at least thought it was mildly interesting). But it was on of those ideas that just got in my head and then wouldn't go away! Please review and tell me what you thought of it.


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